Tag: CAP-politics

The communication goes at great length to greenwash direct income support. The crux is a lowering of current cross-compliance standards and the introduction of another layer of eco-conditionality. But the greening of blanket subsidies is not sufficient. What is needed are truly targeted payments that reward farmers’ individual provision of public goods in line with local conditions.

The communication resembles very closely a draft that leaked a month ago. The careful reader might find a soupçon of additional greening and reinforced reference to global food security as a justification of the CAP. The most significant change is that the most far-reaching reform option 3 now gets a fair representation and is no longer censured by the Commission.

Zapotrzebowanie na Ambitną Reformę Rolnictwa

The French Ministry for the Environment has spectacularly broken ranks with the Ministry of Agriculture by publishing its own vision ‘For a sustainable agricultural policy in 2013’. The 17-page document does not beat about the bush: it calls for a radical overhaul and gives numbers.

In late 2009, leading agricultural economists from all over Europe issued a declaration on ‘A Common Agricultural Policy for European Public Goods’. They proposed the abolition of market intervention and blanket income support to farmers, and outlined a more efficient, greener CAP.

Though many conferences have looked at the CAP from many angles, the international dimension has mostly been neglected. All the more interesting is an upcoming event that compares EU and Australian agricultural policies and searches for best practices. Australia moved from high protection and state intervention to an open agricultural sector during the 80s and 90s. Measured as share in farmers’ revenue, agricultural subsidies in Australia have shrunk to about one-fifth of the level paid in the EU.